I know that writing about budgeting is probably the most boring thing I do here.
It's probably the most important thing I do at the store.
I'm at one of those decision points, that might make the difference between earning a profit and not earning a profit at Christmas.
Here's the situation.
In about 5 days, I will be in the January billing period. My budget isn't lavish for January, but it isn't skimpy either.
Meanwhile, I've pretty much spent my entire December budget.
So wait five days, right?
Generally, I find if I can just fight the temptation to start spending next months money early, that I'll be glad a did about this time next month. Easy to borrow off the future, tough to pay it back.
Then again, there are only about 14 days left in the Christmas shopping season. If I wait the full 5 days, it spills into next weekend for shipping, which mean I won't get product until 5 days before Christmas.
If I make my orders today, it ships tomorrow, gets here on Wednesday, and I have the product for the last 10 days before Christmas.
Then again, if I wait five more days, I'll have one last chance to get those special orders that might come in, or to replace spot shortages just before Christmas.
This may sound contradictory, but I've learned that I both: need product more in slow times, but need order product less in slow times. Especially, when everyone takes a breather after Christmas. It's traditional, almost, to sell off as much remaining inventory as possible in the week after Christmas....
Of course, what I'd really like to do is order today, AND order another batch in about week.
But that really would blow the budget out of the water.
You'd think after all these years I'd have figured out the best way to do things, but since I'll never entirely figure out customer behavior, I'll never probably get it quite right. I don't really even know, yet, if this Christmas is going to be good, bad, or somewhere in-between.
My inclination, as those who read this blog know, is to order the product today -- and try to address any shortfalls in January. But I don't know as I quite trust my inclinations -- I always seem to be playing catch-up.
Here's what I think is a deciding factor: I can order the stuff to arrive on Wednesday, and have five more days to see if sales are any good, and whether a second smaller order is possible.
Or I just take a breather for a couple of weeks.
It's probably the most important thing I do at the store.
I'm at one of those decision points, that might make the difference between earning a profit and not earning a profit at Christmas.
Here's the situation.
In about 5 days, I will be in the January billing period. My budget isn't lavish for January, but it isn't skimpy either.
Meanwhile, I've pretty much spent my entire December budget.
So wait five days, right?
Generally, I find if I can just fight the temptation to start spending next months money early, that I'll be glad a did about this time next month. Easy to borrow off the future, tough to pay it back.
Then again, there are only about 14 days left in the Christmas shopping season. If I wait the full 5 days, it spills into next weekend for shipping, which mean I won't get product until 5 days before Christmas.
If I make my orders today, it ships tomorrow, gets here on Wednesday, and I have the product for the last 10 days before Christmas.
Then again, if I wait five more days, I'll have one last chance to get those special orders that might come in, or to replace spot shortages just before Christmas.
This may sound contradictory, but I've learned that I both: need product more in slow times, but need order product less in slow times. Especially, when everyone takes a breather after Christmas. It's traditional, almost, to sell off as much remaining inventory as possible in the week after Christmas....
Of course, what I'd really like to do is order today, AND order another batch in about week.
But that really would blow the budget out of the water.
You'd think after all these years I'd have figured out the best way to do things, but since I'll never entirely figure out customer behavior, I'll never probably get it quite right. I don't really even know, yet, if this Christmas is going to be good, bad, or somewhere in-between.
My inclination, as those who read this blog know, is to order the product today -- and try to address any shortfalls in January. But I don't know as I quite trust my inclinations -- I always seem to be playing catch-up.
Here's what I think is a deciding factor: I can order the stuff to arrive on Wednesday, and have five more days to see if sales are any good, and whether a second smaller order is possible.
Or I just take a breather for a couple of weeks.